Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Bagua Handgunning



I thought this was pretty interesting, using Bagua footwork in police work. The instructor is using good body mechanics and leverage, I just wonder if these doughnut-eaters can grasp the concepts. It certainly seems that the stable yet intricate footwork would be useful when turning corners in a building.
Years ago I asked my Aikido instructor, who is a County Sheriff, how skilled most police officers are in unarmed combat. Not suprisingly, he said they learned a few simple things at the police academy but little else. Now, maybe in the big city that's different. But he frankly told me that it takes so much time to be skilled in unarmed combat that most police officers, like the general public, just never put the time in. Instead, they rely on the radio, the nightstick and the handgun.
I'm curious if any officers out there care to comment on the training demonstrated in this video...

9 comments:

Littlefair said...

This is a very interesting video showing the importance of good footwork. As I progress, (who'm I kidding)...As I get older I think the essence of some (perhaps all) martial arts is good footwork and tai sabaki (body movement/positioning), and to a lesser extent ki-ken-tai.

It's a real fundamental that one tends to gloss over in youth. Hitting stuff seems much more attractive then concentrating on stepping correctly, placing the feet in the right place, at the right time. This video shows a nice ground up approach to martial application, I think.

I'm also intrigued by elements that will be most beneficial when I'm older. Much older. I think solid footwork will be a great advantage, along with knowing good ukemi and possibly Ji Pang-Ee or walking cane techniques. I'm sure knowing how to fall will stand me in better stead than knowing how to hit someone when I'm 70...

Then again I saw your bus rage post the other day. What did you call him? A septuagenarian jock?

:-)

Colin Wee said...

I had an SAS guy show up at my school once who wanted to train because they didn't teach him enough unarmed combat. Sad isn't it? Colin

Zacky Chan said...

I love seeing this video and bagua's "street" applications, but I think there's a problem in all of the techniques where he grabs the gun from the opponent: Won't the slide on the gun slide back and then tear off his finger on its way back if the gun happens to be fired mid technique?

Charles James said...

In my humble opinion if these guys try this in real life they are going to get shot.

This has purpose as all bottles are good but in this particular instance it is suicide.

Twenty-five years retired as physec officer at Navy Police Base.

Erick Adams said...

Interesting. I'm pretty sure John Painter has made quite a career out of training law enforcement personnel to use Baguazhang in the field.

I know that he considers handgun to be a weapon that deserves attention in training, and it wouldn't surprise me if he teaches turning and changing with it as well.

Here are some sources :
http://www.ninedragonbaguazhang.com/drp.htm
http://thegompa.wordpress.com/

Sean C. Ledig said...

On a related topic of police and hand-to-hand training, I had more than a few friends tell me they went through boot camp with only one or two (if any) classes on hand-to-hand combat.

Several LEO friends and acquaintances tell me the same thing about police training.

BSM said...

Police and corrections are under-trained in hand-to-hand. Back in the day we had a lot of COs (including me) who would take some sort of martial art (boxing, karate, etc.) because we did not trust the training.

Some of the special teams might get additional training but generally speaking, not a lot of time is spend on H2H (esp. for police).

Openhand said...

Having done, and am still "doing" L.E. training, nothing I saw on that video clip would prove "useful", and in regards to "techniques" shown (on it)"impractical". As stated by previous respondents, officer's have limited time (or desire) for training. what was shown here, may be interesting to a MA, but to an L.E. officer, is a waste of (their) time.

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